Pages

The Mysterious India

Konark Temple, Odisha

"Where Sun God Stays"

The Konark Sun Temple was built from stone in the form of a giant ornamented chariot dedicated to the Sun god, Surya. In Hindu Vedic iconography Surya is represented as rising in the east and traveling rapidly across the sky in a chariot drawn by seven horses. He is described typically as a resplendent standing person holding a lotus flower in both his hands, riding the chariot marshaled by the charioteer Aruna. The seven horses are named after the seven meters of Sanskrit prosody: Gayatri, Brihati, Ushnih, Jagati, Trishtubha, Anushtubha, and Pankti. Typically seen flanking Surya are two females who represent the dawn goddesses, Usha and Pratyusha. The goddesses are shown to be shooting arrows, a symbol of their initiative in challenging darkness. The architecture is also symbolic, with the chariot's twelve pairs of wheels corresponding to the 12 months of the Hindu calendar, each month paired into two cycles (Shukla and Krishna).

The Konark Sun temple has two huge lions on either side of the entrance. Each lion is shown crushing an elephant. Beneath each elephant lies the human body.Lion represents pride and elephant represents money.So the major problem that we face today has been depicted in the picture so beautifully!

Jagannath Temple, Puri

"The lord of the Universe"

The Shree Jagannath Temple of Puri is an important Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Jagannath, a form of lord Maha Vishnu , located on the eastern coast of India, at Puri in the state of Odisha.

The temple is of utmost importance to the Hindu devotees as it is one of the Char-Dham Pilgrimages. It also serves as a mighty historical structure built about millennia ago, in the year 1078.

There lies a lot of interesting facts about this temple.

The flag mounted on the top of Jagannath temple flows in the opposite direction to the wind's course without any scientific background to back it up.

This particular temple area is restricted, not even a single bird is encountered above the temple dome, even an airplane could not be seen hovering above the temple.

Might be because Lord Jagannath doesn't want the view of his holy mansion to be disturbed!

The best time to visit this temple is mainly during the Rath Yatra, the chariot festival during which the deities are carried outside the temple on 2 set of chariots (3 each). The first chariot carries the deities till the river which separates the Jagannath Temple and the Mausi Maa temple. After that, the idols are boarded in 3 boats to cross the river. Now the second chariot comes in play. It carries the deities from the river to the Mausi Maa Temple where the ritual takes place.